Divergence (2007)

DVD

It has become almost impossible to discuss Hong Kong crime thrillers without comparing them to the granddaddy of them all, Infernal Affairs. Benny Chan's latest creation Divergence was made by the same creative team as the I.A. Trilogy, and many of the production values are similar. But the film is just too flawed to be taken seriously by an American audience, and in the end comes out as an irritating and exhausting failure.

Where Infernal Affairs succeeded, (strong characters and story development, lightning-fast pacing and superb action sequences) Divergence falls short. The over-construed storyline centers around a Hong Kong cop who loses a vital witness in a murder case to a sniper's bullet. The storyline comes full circle about halfway through the film, and by then you can guess the ending to the mystery with little effort. American audiences have seen this act a dozen times before, and they will not find the plot interesting one bit.

But the story is not what makes Divergence so goddamn frustrating. That would be the job of the visual style, or lack of one. Nearly every scene is ended with a fade, something common in very old cinema but in this day and age a totally extinct practice in editing. By the 10th fade you will want to pull your hair out. By the 20th, you will be on your knees praying to God for a jump cut, a crash to black, a montage, anything! The camera movements are mostly handheld, and many of the compositions are taken straight from I.A. The subtitles are off from the get-go. They move way too fast and have you rewinding constantly. I've seen movies in French, German, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Farsi, Russian, and Swahili...and I have NEVER seen such a monumental failure by a film to put subtitles up in an organized and timely manner. Its truly infuriating to watch.

From start to finish, Divergence is an utter mess. Unlike its Hong Kong thriller predecessors, it fails to maintain any kind of suspenseful pace and instead gets muddled down in its own over-cooked conspiracy plot. The acting for the most part is solid, but the characters are all so flat its tough to say they are by themselves interesting. No matter how much you want him to while watching, Ken Watanabe is not walking through that door to save Divergence from being a piss-poor attempt to recapture the terrific essence of the Infernal Affairs trilogy.

Disc 1:

Audio Commentary by Director Benny Chan:
Fortunately, Benny Chan does speak English so you don't have to try to read his commentary on top of the awful subtitles of the feature. Its a pretty standard commentary for the most part, not really worth watching with such a lousy movie.

Disc 2:

Making Of Divergence:
Pretty good making of documentary. Few members of the cast speak English well, so you hear translators voiced over. It gets annoying, but its cool to see how the film was originally conceived, however flawed it may have ended up.

Gala Premiere: This is really stupid, I have no idea why its on the disc. Its video of the Asian premiere of the film, but to anyone who isn't totally obsessed with the film's Asian festival run (I know I am!) its really pointless.

The other "fluff features" as I call them include the original trailers, Tartan Asian Extreme New Release buyer's guide (fun!), and a photo gallery, in case motion pictures just aren't your thing.

Divergence looks and feels like Chop Suey. Nothing but spare parts from a genre that peaked 5 years ago when Infernal Affairs stole the show.